Vojtech Hynais (1854 – 1925) - Winter (study for the painting Winter) 1901 oil on canvas 26.5 x 33 cm signed and dated lower right: VHynais 1901 Provenance: – significant private collection Consulted with Dr Irena Zantovska Murray HonFRIBA, Professor Tomas Vlcek, Professor Jaromir Zemina, Dr Jiri Machalicky and Vladimir Lekes. Certificate of authenticity from a recognized expert of the painter's work, Dr Marie Mzykova, dated June 24, 2020, enclosed. Hynais entered the first competitions for the decoration of the National Theatre in Prague from Paris. He designed allegories of the four seasons for the boudoir of the royal (now presidential) lodge. The first three paintings were completed in 1881, but the last one, Winter, was postponed after the fire at the National Theatre and Hynais did not start working on it until the turn of the century. At that time he painted a beautiful red-haired woman wrapped in a white drapery who, together with two ravens, flies over a snowy path between birch trees. In her hand she holds a bunch of poppies, an attribute of sleep. In the snowy Stromovka, the Academy model Ernestina Wittnerova posed for him. The work is a beautiful and rare oil study for the painted decoration of the National Theatre in Prague. Auction, Prague, Czech Republic.